Types of Information Sources
Step 6: Evaluate your sources.
Once you find articles, you must know about the sources they come from to evaluate whether or not they're appropriate for your project.
- Periodicals are any type of published material that is published periodically with new content each time.
- Popular periodicals are the kind you would buy to read for fun. Depending on the topic they may have some value for research, but they are usually not the best resource for academic research.
- Scholarly periodicals are written for and by people who work in academics - scholars like you. This type of article is best suited for your research because it is reliable and authoritative.
Website Evaluation
CRAAP test for websites/videos/books:
Answer these questions to evaluate a website.
- CURRENCY: look for a date - is it current?
- RELEVANCE: does it meet my research needs? Is it college-level?
- AUTHORITY: who created/authored/published/sponsored this site/book/video? What type of authority does the author have?
- ACCURACY: is the information verifiable? Has it been reviewed by others? Do they cite their sources?
- PURPOSE: why was this website/book/video written/made? What are the biases? What is the ending of the url (.gov, .edu, .com, .org) tell you?
Types of Periodicals
